incomplete bootup

Every once in a while on bootup everything on the desktop comes up except my system tray icons. When this happens nothing works and I do a hard shutdown and boot again. After the second bootup everything comes up ok. Does anyone know what causes this, and what I can do to correct it? I'm using XP Home sp3. Thanks

 

Anything shows up in the event viewer?
Mrk

 

Hello,
try opening task manager go to users tab and click log off, ok and then keep doing that until it logs off. it should then go back to login screen. login back in and it may work without needing the hard reboot.

 

Nothing that I can see. Events look like every other bootup.

 

1 tool: Autoruns.
1 possibility: a security program. What do you have installed?

 

My Security apps are:
Superantispyware
SpywareBlaster
NOD32 AV
Malwarebytes

You mention autorun, what about it? I have it installed from a zip file.

 

My take on it is that this is just Windows, and the kind of thing that happens eventually. When I start seeing too many little 'glitchoids' like that, I reformat, and problem solved....

 

I've never reformatted. Do you lose everything? Do you know where I can find instructions to reformat?

 

Yeah, you lose it all, so you'd need to backup any data you want to keep. I'd hold off on that unless and until you start to see more odd things happening and it seems like it's time for a reformat. Just one quirk like that is no big deal. It's a matter of degree, and sometimes when it reaches the point where too many things are happening with no fix or explanation, then that's perhaps the time to reformat. I tend to do it often to keep things clean, and/or restore an image if I have one. Probably best to adopt a wait and see attitude on your particular issue there...

 

mmm did you install/uninstall anything before the problem?

I mention autoruns to see what boots with windows, if anything is missing or anything unneeded. At least it's my first look at anything boot related.

 

There could be numerous causes for this.

It sounds like a service is not finished loading yet. Could even be a driver, a likely cause would be something like daemontools driver.

Sometimes windows is configured to look for shares and shared printers, and on bootup in a network, can cause slowdowns.

Sometimes a program that starts on bootup is 'stuck' looking for a resource, especially a network resource.

Sometimes enabling or disabling services dealing with usb devices like scanners can cause/fix these issues. Such as the Windows Image Acquisition servie or even HID input service.

Other times I have seen this with dhcp set network cards.

It can be a real s.o.b. to track down.

Sul.

 

Before a format reinstall you could try a couple of fixes.

See lines 117, 164 and 298 at Kelly's Tips and Fixes, also do a search for taskbar at that site as there are a few.

Run chkdsk. Right click C drive Properties - Tools - Error checking - Check Now - tick both options. Can take a while to run and no guarantee it will work.

Or maybe try a repair install?

But really, there's nothing like the feel of a fresh clean install though and if using an imaging app it can be done in no time.

 

Thanks for all the great info. I have made notes for the future. This quirk happens once every 3 or 4 weeks, so it's not a real problem (yet). I would have to be in real trouble before I'd take on something I've never done before like a reformat where losing all my stuff is a possibility if my image restore doesn't work. As long as I am reasonably sure this quirk is just that, I'm not concerned. It's easy enough to reboot to fix.

 

Are you using the WWDC to close ports?
Have you perhaps neutered your RPC?
Mrk

 

I don't know what those abbreviations stand for, so I"ll say no. Thanks